Friday, February 25, 2005

The time for an apology past due

Dear Dr. Nanos:

In yesterday's meeting explaining the facts surrounding the CREM incident in DX Division, Mary Hockaday, former DX Division Leader, stood up and told the audience that, on the day after you ordered the shutdown, she had informed you that there was an indication that the "missing" CREM inventory may have been suspect. Yet you have persisted for over seven months in misrepresenting the facts behind your stated reasons for the shutdown.

The time for an apology from you to the staff of the Laboratory is well past due. The only honorable course that is now open to you is to resign your position as Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, effective immediately.Sincerely,--Brad Lee HolianTechnical Staff Member******************************Theoretical DivisionGroup T-12, MS-B268Los Alamos National LaboratoryLos Alamos, NM 87545 (USA)------------------------------phone: 505-667-9237fax: 505-665-3909email: blh@lanl.gov******************************

Brad, You've said what many have wanted to say but did not have the guts to say: it's time Nanos apologize to the workforce.

At a minimum, Nanos needs to apologize to the workforce for calling us all "cowboys" and "buttheads" -- even he himself (through his Spinmeisters) had acknowledged that there is only a "cultural problem" in a "small group of people" (as heard on NPR).

Even better, to make it up to the DX employees and to show that he really does care about science at LANL, Nanos ought to roll up his sleeves, put on a hard hat, and dust off his work boots, and get down there to help out with 3625!

Mary Hockaday is only now coming out to stand against Nanos now that her neck is also in the noose. She NEVER stood up for her employees when she could have made a difference as their Division Leader. She deserves the tainted reputation she has acquired. We do not want her back under any circumstances. May she rot with Nanos in mismanagement hell.

If he's this unrestrained in a management setting we certainly don't want him around explosives! To allow that would be a violation of the DOE Explosives Safety Manual. I'll look the exact section and post it.

a high level UC source said they were indeed aware that only labels, not classified disks, were unaccounted for PRIOR to the shut down. THey have been watching this all along. What did the fbi investigation (that concluded the same) cost?

Mary's comments, though very helpful to lab employees, were motivated more by "sour grapes" than a sense of duty to the lab. She's been canned as DX division leader by Nanos and she knows her management career at the lab and elsewhere is over. When she was division leader, she was anything but courageous or supportive of employees. This was about payback.

It is definitely past time for Nanos to apologize. He promised he would apologize if he was mistaken, "In front of Macy's on a Sunday" was his phrase if I remember correctly. Well he was wrong, he lies to us and does not follow through with the simplest of tasks...an apology for God's sake, is this so difficult for you Mr. Nanos?? Can you not find enough humanity in your soul to humble yourself just a little and not only makes things a little better with employees but also your own conscience? Oh, what was I thinking, a conscience??

Mr. Nanos, it is time for you to apologize and place the icing on that apology by anouncing your resignation, effective immediately.